Mobile processors have been growing faster and faster with each passing generation. What was unthinkable two years ago has just become a common norm today. Back in 2011, a single core ARM Cortex A8 based processor clocked at 1.4 GHz was considered top end. Come 2013, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 blisters past everything with its four Krait 400 custom cores clocked at a mind-boggling high 2.3 GHz. These chips are able to perform while being constrained to severely limiting TDPs, as low as 2.5W. Go figure.

Now, a new report cites that the game doesn’t end here. Processors clocked as high as 3 GHz are headed our way in 2014. Performance is not all about clock speeds, but if the current 28nm manufactured processors are able to clock in at 2.3 GHz, a process shrink to 20nm, expected to happen early in 2014, will certainly help increase clock speeds while consuming lesser power and die size at the same time. The new 20nm node at TSMC and GlobalFoundries is expected to offer a 25% decrease in power consumption, allow up to 30% faster clock speeds and up to 1.9 times better transistor density with low leakage. That means more transistors in a lesser die, leading to more powerful processors. Certainly something we’ll be seeing in Qualcomm’s next super high-end custom core SoC.

What about you? Would you like a 3 GHz Smartphone or tablet? Or would you rather OEMs go for lesser power consumption and offer us mobile devices with battery lives? I know, we can never have ‘enough’ raw power performance, but for many, other factors like battery life take precedence once a minimum performance level (smooth operations) is met.